I send a semi-daily email delivering insights into leadership in exponential times. For entrepreneurs, corporate irritants and change makers. Raw, unfiltered and opinionated. It is called The Heretic and here is the dispatch from 2015-03-09:

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RAIN MAKING

I believe one of the, if not the, most important skill you need as an entrepreneur is your ability and willingness to make it rain.

As much as you need to be able to create a compelling vision, turn that vision into a solid strategy and robust tactics; attract and hire the right people; figure out the legal setup and contracts as well as build a company from the ground up — if you don’t sell, all is for naught.

Selling is part skill, part aptitude and part conquering your weaker self. For most of us (yours truly included) it’s mostly the latter.

Too many entrepreneurs hide behind creating pretty slide decks, polishing their product, philosophizing about the future instead of going out, hitting the pavement and hustle. For most of us asking for money or help is hard. We are taught to be independent and many of us never had to ask, really ask, to get something. And too many of the stories we read about others’ success sound like the world is a “build it and they will come” one. Tell you what — that’s just not true.

You have to put yourself out there and start selling and asking for money. All the time. Every time.

Now — peel yourself away from polishing your product or strategizing about your plan for world domination and make a bunch of (cold) calls. It’s gonna be uncomfortable. Rejection will hurt. But it’s the only way to build a company.